I agreed with your post up until the last paragraph. I have seen no evidence that Tivo makes particularly wise business decisions. In fact, they have been on the precipice of collapse for a decade as a result of their previous business decisions.

Successful ligitagion outcomes are currently keeping them afloat.

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You are not privy to all of the data, so you really can't judge their decisions. I have been on the other side for 20+ years and have never made a dumb decision. I have made a lot of unpopular decisions and made decisions that, in hindsight, when we had more data turned out to not be the best path. But in product development you are stuck making decisions based on the best available data at the time.

They have to make decisions based on what is best for the company, that is not always what is best for the customer.

I don't need to know their internal data to know that they consistently lose money year after year. Yes, they're making super business decisions.

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Actually, that's not really true. Here is a snapshot of their Earnings Per Share going back to 2007. They are slightly positive on EPS over that period thanks mostly to the $1 Billion in litigation settlements from Dish, AT&T, and Verizon. They continue to spend significant dollars on litigation which masks that their core advanced television business is in the midst of a significant turn-around. It will become evident in Calendar Year 2014 when they turn EPS positive again. These numbers assume zero new deals and zero settlements and/or trial proceeds from Motorola, Time Warner, or Cisco.

Actually, that's not really true. Here is a snapshot of their Earnings Per Share going back to 2007. They are slightly positive on EPS over that period thanks mostly to the $1 Billion in litigation settlements from Dish, AT&T, and Verizon.

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Isn't that the essence of one of my previous posts? "Successful ligitagion outcomes are currently keeping them afloat."

But for their litigation settlements, Tivo would be consistently losing money on their core business. I don't understand the constant deification of Tivo executives on TCF.

Only thing you can do is hope for a 4+ tuner Premiere with OTA in the future and hope the price of your 2 tuner Premiere with lifetime does not diminish in value when that time comes.

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With the mini finally being released, I think at this point its safe to say that Tivo has more or less abandoned OTA use & will NOT have the OTA option on any future TiVO boxes. Instead, I'm thinking they will come out with a digital cable only, 6-tuner box that will also work with these minis. Its unfortunate, but chances are pretty good that it will be true.

It's amazing to me how anytime the subject of "Apple" comes up, people feel the need to comment about how they hate Apple devices, they are iCrap, they won't buy them if you put a gun to their head, etc.... yet, you don't see all of the many people in the forum who do like Apple products crapping all over Google and Android.

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There are always some people who cannot like what they have unless they put down what they don't. It's kind of fascinating in a way but also rather annoying. Android and iOS are just two different approaches to the same thing and choice is a good. It doesn't make sense to get so angry over a piece of electronics.

With the mini finally being released, I think at this point its safe to say that Tivo has more or less abandoned OTA use & will NOT have the OTA option on any future TiVO boxes. Instead, I'm thinking they will come out with a digital cable only, 6-tuner box that will also work with these minis. Its unfortunate, but chances are pretty good that it will be true.

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We know from their recent FCC filings that they do intend to have OTA on a future box though.

With the mini finally being released, I think at this point its safe to say that Tivo has more or less abandoned OTA use & will NOT have the OTA option on any future TiVO boxes. Instead, I'm thinking they will come out with a digital cable only, 6-tuner box that will also work with these minis. Its unfortunate, but chances are pretty good that it will be true.

With the mini finally being released, I think at this point its safe to say that Tivo has more or less abandoned OTA use & will NOT have the OTA option on any future TiVO boxes. Instead, I'm thinking they will come out with a digital cable only, 6-tuner box that will also work with these minis. Its unfortunate, but chances are pretty good that it will be true.

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As someone who cut the cord almost 2 years ago and is OTA only, I can only hope you are wrong.

As someone else mentioned TiVo recently filed a petition with the FCC asking for a waiver so they do not have to include analog support in their next generation units. They specifically mention in the waiver request that at least one of the units will support OTA.

We don't know the exact configuration of the units but we do know for a fact, from TiVos own petition to the FCC, that there will be one that supports OTA.

Technically, just because TiVo mentions DTV (antenna) in their FCC filing doesn't mean they have to make an OTA DVR.
They are covering their bases so they CAN, if they choose to do so.

I sure hope they choose to do so, otherwise I'll just stick with what I have now and never buy another TiVo product.

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Usually by the time they file these things they already have the product designed. I doubt they would mention OTA in the filing if they weren't planning on actually supporting it.

Edit: I was just re-reading the waiver request and this part seems to prove that they are intending to make a OTA unit...

The requested waivers will allow TiVo to continue its history of expanding consumer choice in the retail set-top box market through the introduction of new all-digital devices. The devices subject to the requested waivers are part of the next generation of TiVo's all-digital "Premiere" line, for which the Commission previously granted TiVo waivers of portions of the "Digital Cable Ready" certification, marketing, and labeling rules (the DCRRules). TiVo therefore requires an extension of the existing waiver for those devices. One model of TiVo's new all-digital DVRs would include ATSC over-the-air reception capability; this model, therefore, requires waiver of both the DCR Rules and Section 15.117(b)'s dual analog/digital tuner requirement.

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They specifically reference the "next generation" of Premiere units and are specifically asking for the waiver to be extended to include rules in the OTA mandates as well as the digital cable ones.

What mandates are there in OTA rules? There is no OTA analog anymore...

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At this time, low power independant stations are still allowed to broadcast in analog.
I think there is a cutoff when analog is to be abandoned completely, but that hasn't happened yet (2015?)
And until that time comes, you need a waiver from the FCC to exclude analog tuning capability in any product put forth to consumers.

At this time, low power independant stations are still allowed to broadcast in analog.
I think there is a cutoff when analog is to be abandoned completely, but that hasn't happened yet (2015?)
And until that time comes, you need a waiver from the FCC to exclude analog tuning capability in any product put forth to consumers.

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Oh man, the FCC needs to grow a pair. They should have done a total cutover not long after the initial cut-over.

You seriously underestimate the ability of rural Americans to scream at the FCC and their elected representatives over the need to get a digital tuner box for that 30 year old set they still watch.

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I hope you are joking -

The one I know of in the Rochester NY area is a home shopping network and doesn't have enough strength to make it very far out of the city. There were other low power stations again all in or near the city but I think most have gone away or converted to digital the last one to convert that I know about was the MyTV network again it was near the city not in the Rural areas.

Frankly I agree with the sentiment that it is BS that these things are still around.